'We've hardly added any hostels in 32 years': Manoj Jha after Satya Niketan collapse

Delhi’s Satya Niketan building collapse has once again raised questions about student accommodation and safety in the national capital. Rajya Sabha MP and Delhi University professor Manoj Kumar Jha has called for a major expansion of public hostels, saying the tragedy should prompt a rethink of how the government supports students.

A multi-storied paying guest accommodation building in Satya Niketan, near Delhi University’s South Campus, collapsed, killing seven people, while 12 others were rescued. The initial findings pointed to an unauthorised alteration of the basement as a possible trigger.

The Delhi government has ordered structural audits across the city, while the Delhi High Court has agreed to an urgent hearing on a public interest litigation. Jha, however, argued that audits alone would not address the larger problem facing students who depend on private accommodation.

Hostel shortage

Jha said the incident felt particularly personal because of his association with Delhi University as both a former student and teacher. He recalled completing his master’s degree in 1992 and said the university had added very few hostels in the decades since.

“If I tell you the number of hostels we have now after 32 years, you'd be shocked to know that we have hardly added any hostels that could be counted,” Jha said.

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He pointed to the growing gap between student intake and hostel capacity. In his own department, he said, student intake had increased from around 50-52 earlier to about 120-130, while the hostel capacity remained at around 50.

Jha said the result was overcrowding, with rooms designed for one student being shared by two or three students. He argued that the government must look beyond the immediate question of municipal responsibility and examine the accommodation crisis affecting students arriving in Delhi from across the country.

Rental pressure

According to Jha, students are also being pushed into what he described as a “predatory rental market” in areas such as Satya Niketan and locations near Delhi University’s North Campus.

He said rooms can be extremely small while being shared by multiple students, with individual beds costing anywhere between Rs 14,000 and Rs 20,000 a month.

Also Read: Satya Niketan building collapse: 7 dead, 12 rescued; 5 MCD officials suspended

“Priority should be for vulnerable students, because we don't know when a parent from Bihar or Karnataka or Uttar Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh sends his or her ward to Delhi, they do it at the cost of cutting down on their personal expenditure, many a time cutting their food intake,” he said.

Jha called for a fresh look at public-funded education, arguing that private institutions should be allowed to operate but should not come at the expense of public education. He said public-funded institutions remain particularly important for students from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Need for structural changes

Jha also criticised what he described as a recurring pattern in the government's response to tragedies: immediate action followed by a return to “business as usual”.

“Have we become a nation which is waiting for a tragedy on a daily basis, some kind of condolence message, some kind of monetary compensation, and then life goes back to the same old, stale, insipid routine,” he said.

He argued that the government should focus on long-term structural changes rather than what he called “headline management”. Referring to students protesting over issues such as examinations and employment, Jha said their concerns should be understood rather than dismissed.

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“They were not asking for a share of the moon or stars. They were asking for something as fundamental as unrigged examinations, fair employment opportunity,” he said.

Jha cited sociologist Manuel Castells’ work on social movements in the internet age while discussing the concerns of younger generations. Castells’ work specifically examines how internet-based communication networks have shaped contemporary protest movements.

Growth mismatch

Jha rejected the argument that systemic reforms would necessarily take too long. He said results could begin appearing if the government made student accommodation an immediate priority.

“If you can build five-star offices for your party, please, I want you to make two-star hostels. Forget the stars, ordinary hostels,” he said.

He also questioned the contrast between India's growth narrative and the lack of basic accommodation for university students.

“I cannot understand that story through Article 39 of the Indian Constitution, when my students do not have accommodation,” Jha said.

Also Read: Hyderabad building collapse: Two dead, several injured in Madhapur

The MP said regular safety audits should become part of the government’s calendar rather than being introduced only after a tragedy. He argued that the larger objective should be to understand and address the problems faced by young people.

“Let's not wait for another Satya Niketan, another coaching tragedy to put those safety audits, regular safety audits in motion,” he said. “Do it as part of your calendar regularly.”

The question now is whether the Satya Niketan collapse will lead to sustained reform in student housing — or, as Jha warned, another cycle of immediate action followed by a return to business as usual.